Tawhiao's visit to Auckland, early in 1882, Mr. Firth entertained him and his chiefs. Mr. Firth was the owner of a model farm of fifty thousand acres at Matamata, in the Auckland Provincial District. He is the author of "Our Kin across the Sea," with a preface by Mr. Froude (Longmans), and "Nation-making" (Longmans, 1890).
Fisher, George, M.H.R., sometime Minister of Education and Customs, New Zealand, is the son of James Fisher and Elizabeth (McLeod) his wife, and though of Scotch descent, was born at Dublin in Dec. 1843. At nine years of age he was engaged in a printing office in Gough Square, London, and arrived in Melbourne, Vict., with his parents in Sept. 1857, where he was employed as reading boy on the Age newspaper, and subsequently on the Herald, his father being a small proprietor in the former journal. He was next employed as a compositor by Messrs. Ferguson & Moore, of Melbourne, but left that firm in 1863 to go to the Otago gold diggings in New Zealand. After working at his trade in Invercargill, Dunedin, and Christchurch, Mr. Fisher settled in Wellington, and was employed in the Government printing office till 1872, when he became a reporter on the Independent, and having learnt shorthand, obtained a footing on the New Zealand Hansard staff, which he held for eleven years, being in the meantime returned to the Wellington City Council, and holding the mayoralty of the capital for four consecutive years. In 1884 he was elected to the House of Representatives for South Wellington, and has represented East Wellington since 1887. He was Minister of Education and Commissioner of Trade and Customs in the last Atkinson Government from Oct. 1887 to April 1889, when he resigned, the vacant portfolios being taken over by the Premier. Mr. Fisher was married at Christchurch, N.Z., on March 1st, 1866, to Miss Laura Emma Tompkins.
Fisher, Sir James Hurtle, son of the late James Fisher, a London architect, was born in 1790, and educated for the legal profession, practising as a solicitor in Cavendish Square from 1811 to 1832. When the colony of South Australia was founded, in 1836, he was appointed by the Imperial Government, Resident Commissioner for Crown Lands, and arrived in Adelaide with the first Governor, Captain Hindmarsh, in December, being present at the proclamation of the colony in that month. The pair quickly quarrelled over the selection of a site for the capital, and possessing virtually concurrent powers, and neither being inclined to give way, a deadlock ensued, which was only broken by the interference of the Home Government, who after their representatives had spent fourteen months in wrangling, dismissed the Commissioner and recalled the Governor. This occurred in Oct. 1838, Sir James Fisher thenceforward throwing in his lot with the colony, as a much- respected private citizen. The same year he became President of the School Society, and was elected first Mayor of Adelaide in 1840; being re-chosen five times subsequently, the last occasion being in 1853, in July of which year he was nominated to the Legislative Council, and held a seat till 1855, when he became a nominated non-official member and Speaker of the united Council which passed the Constitution Act. At the first election under the Constitution Act in 1857, Sir James was returned to the Legislative Council, and was chosen Speaker in April of that year, a position which he held until he retired from the Council in Feb. 1865. Sir James, who was an active patron of the turf, was created Knight Bachelor in May 1860, up to which year he successfully practised his profession, and was for some time leader of the South Australian bar. He died in Adelaide on Jan. 28th, 1875.
Fitzgerald, Captain Charles, R.N., C.B., formerly Governor of Western Australia, was the son of Robert Fitzgerald, of Kilkee, county Clare, and entered the royal navy in 1809. He was Governor of the Gambia from 1844 to 1847, and of Western Australia from August 1848 to June 1855. During an exploring expedition, undertaken in Dec. 1848, with a view of confirming Mr. A. C. Gregory's reported discovery of a lead mine on the Murchison, the Governor was speared by blacks, and narrowly escaped with his life. He was created C.B. in 1857, and died on Dec. 29th, 1887, in his ninety-sixth year, at Geraldine House, Kilkee.
Fitzgerald, Hon. George Parker, M.H.A., has been the representative of Hobart in the House of Assembly since 1886,
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